Fr Jim Norris was one Priest that helped discern the way to greater love, and it's true meaning to me. There are different ways of course, free will is part of God's design for the human race and we often ask why. Fr Kelly, said "because God wants human beings not mules". You have to read that with an Irish accent.
The monastic life and my experiences is something I will have to write about. Stability is my pet subject at the moment.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Hi my name is Mark Baird I was born
in the small town of Rotorua, New Zealand.

My book is a series
of reflections, these are meditations where the reader thinks about what has
been written and how it relates to their journey with Jesus. It enriches a
person’s faith and develops a stronger character. It is not a personal diary. I
want my book to by handbook that can be used at prayer groups or meditations
however the long term plan is to form a Society that offers the poor an
opportunity to live in a community.

As part of the Columban
Catholic formation program the novice seminarian completes a St Ignatius 30 day
retreat. This is what my book is centred on. Fr Jim Norris handwrote his notes
in six notebooks and passed them on to me. I knew after reading them that they
were very special, not because of any glamourous adventure or deep theological
treatise but the easy flow of a thinking mind.

My book is guide to
the faithful who are wanting a deeper understanding of Jesus and the Church, it
has a piecemeal series of dates that can be used as a quick 15 minute
reflection. By doing this the reader gets a quick insight into the spiritual
world. The time is set during World War II and when the war is raging outside
the book barely mentions the events. It is when Fr Jim gets his assignment to
go to China he mentions that life could get very tough.

In the words of Fr Jim on this/ Sunday, August 10, 2014

"Your nature had as it were a
definite bias towards evil. Now as you grew older you forgot your dignity as a
child of God/and you squandered your inheritance, the beautiful gifts of
Baptism by serious sin. Not only once/ but again and again. You can see that as
a result of your evil nature and repeated habit of sin your correct view of
things has been changed. Your mind is perverted,/ sin means little to you and
your soul is darkened and blunted./ To clean the soul and give it the correct
natural view on creatures, the Soul needs much effort and prayer and grace. You
have fallen from your pedestal as a Brother of Jesus Christ into the mud and to
get it back again the Soul needs much washing, straightening/ and since we are
so weak, much help.